Police office Veilingweg Rotterdam-Rijnmond

July 24, 2015

BUILDING STRUCTURES

Located next to the Veilingweg, Rotterdam, this police quarter housed in 2010 old (auction) halls, a 25 year old office and exercise complex and a number of temporary buildings. Since the complex did not meet modern criteria and provided too little space for its functions,

it has been redeveloped. In the new complex, the structures of the halls and the office and exercise complex have been reused. Buildings have been added to provide for the office and meeting functions, garage and the exercise facility, and come with additional parking spaces on their roofs.

For the building’s reuse, Aronsohn started with extensive archival research, based on which possibilities and limitations regarding structure engineering have been determined. After recalculation, the existing hall’s steel structures appeared fit to support new façades and a new roof. In the halls, various new interior structures are founded on tubular steel piles. The office consisted of a concrete skeleton made out of concrete floor slabs with integrated supporting beams, columns and a concrete core. This skeleton’s stability did not meet current requirements. As a result, it was decided to reinforce the internal stability elements. To this end, a new Tubex grout injection pile foundation was needed—one that could be installed with a small set up—and a new concrete core around the existing one. Consequently, the stabilisation capacity was sufficiently increased to allow for an additional storey and section.

The new buildings’ structures have been designed for maximal flexibility. The office and meeting building has a slender column structure with integrated beams and hollow-core slabs that span the façades. The garage and exercise building also has a hollow-core slab structure, with 15,5 metre spans, integrated beams and slender columns. Particular attention has been given to floor vibrations during exercise sessions. Measures have been taken to allow for future adjustments to the structure’s dynamic behaviour, should the need arise. The new buildings are founded on concrete piles that have had to be driven into soil containing a great number of obstacles. The structure forms an integral component of the building’s architecture.

The police building complex has remained in use during the works. For this reason, construction works have been carried out in phases, during which the police bureau’s security zones were carefully marked.